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Hipparion Macedonicum Revisited: New Data on Evolution of Hipparionine Horses from the Late Miocene of Greece

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Hipparion Macedonicum Revisited: New Data on Evolution of Hipparionine Horses from the Late Miocene of Greece Hipparion macedonicum revisited: New data on evolution of hipparionine horses from the Late Miocene of Greece GEORGE D. KOUFOS Koufos, G.D. 2016. Hipparion macedonicum revisited: New data on evolution of hipparionine horses from the Late Miocene of Greece. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 61 (3): 519–536. The new expeditions to the Axios Valley (Macedonia, Greece) provided a new set of fossils from the various localities. Among the material collected from the Late Miocene hominoid bearing mammal locality Ravin de la Pluie (RPl) were some remains of Hipparion macedonicum, which was originally described from this locality. The most important is the skull and associated mandible, the first from the type locality. The new material is compared with the previously collected material of the taxon from the Vallesian and Turolian levels of Greece, as well as with corresponding material from Eurasia. The RPl skull is compared with the type skull of H. matthwei, a taxon, which several times has been re- ferred as synonym to H. macedonicum. The comparison indicated several differences which distinguish the two species. Hipparion macedonicum has a continuous stratigraphic range from the Vallesian to middle Turolian and it is possibly present in the late Turolian. The comparison of the chronologically different samples of H. macedonicum indicates that the Vallesian form of H. macedonicum has larger size, shorter narial opening, longer tooth rows, rich enamel plication, more elongated and narrow plis, more robust metapodials and less running legs than the Turolian form. Some of the mor- phological changes are related to the habitat, which was more closed, warmer and wetter in the Vallesian than Turolian. Key words: Mammalia, Equidae, systematic, evolution, palaeoecology, Miocene, Greece. George D. Koufos [[email protected]], Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Geology, Laboratory of Geology and Palaeontology, GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece. Received 20 April 2015, accepted 5 June 2015, available online 12 June 2015. Copyright © 2016 G.D. Koufos. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (for details please see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. new material of H. macedonicum from RPl is described and Introduction compared with the known material of the taxon from other localities in this article, providing information for its mor- The Late Miocene mammal locality Ravin de la Pluie (RPl, phology, relationships, evolution, as well as its stratigraphic Axios Valley, Macedonia, Greece) is well-known because and geographic distribution. of the presence of the hominoid primate Ouranopithecus macedoniensis. The RPl fauna is quite rich including mainly Institutional abbreviations.—AMNH, American Museum of mammals (Koufos 2006b, 2012a, b, and references cited Natural History, New York; LGPUT, Laboratory of Geology therein) and suggesting correlation to the late Vallesian (MN and Palaeontology, University of Thessaloniki, Greece. 10) with a magnetostratigraphically estimated age of ~9.3 Ma (Koufos 2013 and references cited therein). The hippar- Locality abbreviations.—AKK, Akkaşdağı, Turkey; DYTI, ions, in comparison to the Turolian localities, are rare in the localities of Dytiko 1, 2, 3, Axios Valley, Greece; DKO, Dytiko RPl sample and classified to two species: H. cf. H. sebas- 3, Axios Valley, Greece; KTA-B, Kemiklitepe-A, B, Turkey; topolitanum Borissiak, 1914 and H. macedonicum Koufos, KRY, Kryopigi, Greece; MTLA, Mytilinii-1A, Samos, 1984. The first taxon was described earlier as a form of H. Greece; MYT, Mytilinii-3, Samos, Greece; NIK, Nikiti-2, primigenium by Koufos (1986, 2000) but recently Vlachou Greece; NKT, Nikiti-1, Greece; PER, Perivolaki, Greece; PIK, (2013) transferred it to H. cf. H. sebastopolitamum; the other Pikermi, Greece; PXM, Prochoma 1, Axios Valley, Greece; taxon, H. macedonicum, was originally described from RPl Q1, Quarry 1, Samos, Greece; Q5, Quarry 5, Samos, Greece; (Koufos 1984, 1986). During the last expeditions in Axios RPl, Ravin de la Pluie, Axios Valley, Greece; RZ1, Ravin des Valley new material of H. macedonicum has been unearthed Zouaves 1 , Axios Valley, Greece; RZO, Ravin des Zouaves from RPl, including mainly mandibular remains but also 5, Axios Valley, Greece; SIN, Sinap, Turkey; TAR, Taraklia, the first skull, providing new information about the cranial Ukraine; PAV, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan; PNT, Pentalophos 1, morphology of H. macedonicum from the type locality. The Greece; VATH, localities of Vathylakkos, Greece. Acta Palaeontol. Pol. 61 (3): 519–536, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.4202/app.00169.2015 520 ACTA PALAEONTOLOGICA POLONICA 61 (3), 2016 Other abbreviations.—DAP, antero-posterior diameter; mal part of McIII, LGPUT RPl-285; proximal part of tibia, HS, habitat score; KI, Keel Index; McIII , third metacarpal; LGPUT RPl-284; distal epiphysis of tibia, LGPUT RPl-288; MtIII, third metatarsal; PCA, principal component analysis; distal part of MtIII, LGPUT RPl-292. POF, preorbital fossa; POB, preorbital bar (length preorbital Emended diagnosis.—Small size; relatively elongated and fossa–anterior orbit); SI, Slenderness Index. narrow muzzle; shallow narial opening, the nasal notch is retracted above the middle of the C-P2 diastema; el- liptical, shallow, antero-posteriorly oriented, not pocketed Material and methods posteriorly with moderately developed margin, and open anteriorly POF; moderate POB; infraorbital foramen en- The studied material, except the new collection, includes croaches upon the antero-ventral border of the POF; mod- also the old one described earlier (Koufos, 1984, 1986); all erate enamel plication in the upper cheek teeth with narrow studied material is housed in the Laboratory of Geology and and deep plis; simple-double pli caballin; elliptical-oval Palaeontology, University of Thessaloniki (LGPUT). The and isolated protocone; often connection of the fossettes; biometric study of the material follows the recommenda- very rare presence of a weak lingual hypoconal groove; tions of Eisenmann et al. (1988); all the measurements are often presence of functional dP1; elongated and slender given in mm with an accuracy of 0.1 mm. Upper and lower metapodials. case letters denote upper and lower teeth, respectively. The Hipparion matthewi differs from H. macedonicum hav- software PAST (Hammer et al. 2001) used for the princi- ing smaller size, shorter muzzle, deeper narial opening (na- pal component analysis (PCA) and box-plot diagrams and sal notch is retracted above the mesial half of P2), ovoid Office Excell 2010 for Simpson’s log-ratio diagrams. All with well-defined borders, deeper, dorso-ventrally oriented metrical data for the Greek material, as well as for those POF and infraorbital foramen situated in front but outside from Kemiklitepe A–B and Akkaşdağı are from author’s of POF. Hipparion nikosi differs from H. macedonicum database; those for Hipparion elegans and H. moldavicum are taken from www.vera-eisenmann.com. Hipparion med- having smaller size (similar to H. matthewi) and remarkably iterraneum from Pikermi was used as reference species deeper narial opening (nasal notch is retracted above the in the Simpson’s log-ratio diagrams and the measurements P3–P4) distinguishing it well from all known small hip- were taken from Koufos (1987). parions of the Eastern Mediterranean region. Hipparion moldavicum with larger size, longer muzzle, wider incisive row, deeper narial opening (nasal notch is retracted above or in front of P2), larger, deeper and posteriorly pocketed Systematic palaeontology POF, infraorbital foramen situated below the antero-ventral rim of POF and larger metapodials differs from H. mace- Family Equidae Gray, 1821 donicum. Hipparion sithonis Koufos and Vlachou, 2016 is Genus Hipparion de Christol, 1832 different in the slightly larger size, the deeper narial open- Hipparion macedonicum Koufos, 1984 ing (nasal notch is retracted above the mesostyle of P2), the Figs. 1–3. presence of canine fossa, the antero-ventrally oriented and with well-defined borders POF, and the relatively shorter 1980 Hipparion sp.; Koufos 1980: 292. 1984 H. macedonicum; Koufos 1984: 386, figs. 2, 3. and robust metapodials. Hipparion uzunagizli differs from 1986 H. macedonicum Koufos, 1984; Koufos 1986: 71, pls. 1–3. H. macedonicum in the longer and wider muzzle, the deeper 2013 H. macedonicum Koufos, 1984; Vlachou 2013: 318. narial opening (nasal notch is retracted above the mesial Type material: Holotype: mandible with i1–m3 dex and i1–m2 sin, margin of P2), the longer POB, the larger, subtriangular, LGPUT RPl-21 (Fig. 3A). Paratype: skull and associated mandible, antero-ventrally oriented and posteriorly pocketed POF. LGPUT RPl-125 (Figs. 1, 3C). Hipparion kecigibi with larger size, short and wider muzzle, Type locality: Ravin de la Pluie (RPl), Axios Valley, Macedonia, Greece. subtriangular, deeply pocketed posteriorly and larger POF is Type horizon: Late Vallesian, MN 10; Late Miocene; GPTS = ~9.3 Ma separated from H. macedonicum. Hipparion elegans differs (Koufos 2013 and references cited therein). in the larger size, the subtriangular with well-defined bor- Material.—The given list includes only the new unde- ders POF, the longer and wider snout, the longer tooth rows, scribed previously specimens. Skull and associated mandi- and the large and slenderer metapodials. ble,
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